Photo Finish In an American League MVP race almost too close to call, one candidate stands out with an accomplishment unmatched in the majors in 61 years

For 131 of the Boston Red Sox' 162 games this season, their acerighthander, Pedro Martinez, could be found in the dugout,usually wearing sneakers instead of spikes, his tongue flyingabout as fiercely as one of his mischievous fastballs. He had asmuch chance of getting into the game as a beer vendor. One nighthis teammates got so tired of Martinez's lounge act that theytaped him to a dugout pole and then slapped a strip of adhesiveover his mouth. "We're trying to focus, so we want him out ofthe dugout most of the time," says Boston third baseman JohnValentin. "Sometimes it's good when he cuts up like that. Butthere are times when you want to go, 'Get the f--- out of here.'"

Elsewhere on those four of every five nights in which the idleMartinez was auditioning for the Catskills, Texas Rangerscatcher Ivan Rodriguez might have been taking another foul balloff his cup, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter andCleveland Indians second baseman Roberto Alomar were probablygobbling up grounders and zipping around the bases, andCleveland rightfielder Manny Ramirez was continuing to drivemore people home than Greyhound. Of course, on the 31 occasionsMartinez did ascend the mound, he slung the ball with anastonishing efficiency that, when measured against hiscontemporaries, has never before been seen in the game. His 2.07ERA was 2.79 better than that of his league, an unprecedented gap.

The Most Valuable Player award has always seemed to be aninvention by Rorschach, but never more so than this year in theAmerican League. (Because Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves issuch a clear-cut choice in the National League, no ink blotsneed be consulted there this year.) The 28 baseball writers (twofrom each city in the American League) who submitted theirballots before the playoffs began this week had no fewer thanseven worthy candidates to consider for their personalizedinterpretation of most valuable. None of those could-be MVPsrepresented more of a beguiling blot of confusion than Martinez,who was either such an all-powerful force for the Red Sox thathe helped them win games even in his sneakers or a Milton Berlewith too much time on his hands.

The pitcher-versus-player debate has unfolded many times withmixed results (chart, right), most notably when the Los AngelesDodgers' Sandy Koufax lost to the San Francisco Giants' WillieMays in 1965, the Yankees' Ron Guidry lost to the Red Sox' JimRice in '78 and the Red Sox's Roger Clemens won over theYankees' Don Mattingly in '86. (Clemens is the only startingpitcher to finish first or second in either league's MVPballoting since '78.) Never before, though, has the value of astarting pitcher been measured against so many players totingMVP credentials.

"No matter how you fill out your ballot, you'll get a call froma city saying, 'How could you vote our guy sixth?'" said PeterSchmuck of the Baltimore Sun, a member of the electorate, lastweek. "It's fascinating. I think the guy who will win is the guywho gets the most votes in the top five."

"Pedro Martinez affects games the day before he pitches and theday after he pitches," says Tony Massarotti of the BostonHerald, who cast his first-place vote for Martinez. "[Manager]Jimy Williams can use his bullpen more before Pedro pitchesbecause he's going to get seven or eight innings, guaranteed[from Martinez]. And the day after Pedro pitches, Williams has afresh bullpen."

It's a nice theory, though it would carry more weight ifMartinez had pitched at least seven innings in more starts thanthe Baltimore Orioles' 12-game loser Scott Erickson (each wentseven or more 21 times) and had finished better than tied foreighth in the league in innings worked. If a starting pitcher isgoing to be more valuable than an every-day player, he'd bettercarry an extraordinary load. No starting pitcher has won the MVPaward without chucking at least 253 innings. Martinez threw 2131/3.

True, Martinez (23-4) struck out more than eight times as manybatters (313) as he walked (37). He allowed no home runs in the293 at bats against him with runners on. He gave up two earnedruns or fewer in all but five of his starts. He's many wonderfulthings. A workhorse isn't among them.

In 1985 the New York Mets' Dwight Gooden put up numbers (24-4,1.53) similar to Martinez's '99 figures, plus he chewed up 2762/3 innings, all for a second-place Mets team that took theNational League East-winning St. Louis Cardinals to the lastweekend of the season. Yet Gooden finished fourth in the MVPballoting. (Cardinals outfielder Willie McGee, the leaguebatting champion at .353, won the award.) Martinez's numbersactually are closer to those Greg Maddux put up for thefirst-place Atlanta Braves in the strike-shortened 1995 season(19-2, 1.63, 209 2/3 innings). Maddux finished third in theballoting; the award went to a guy with 66 RBIs who didn't leadthe league in any offensive category, the Cincinnati Reds' BarryLarkin. "Pedro's been phenomenal," Red Sox firstbaseman-designated hitter Mike Stanley says, "but there's somuch more to the game. You've got to give the MVP to guys whogrind it out over 162 games, especially this year, when you'vegot guys putting up Nintendo numbers. Heck, they've got numbersI can't even get in Nintendo."

Another argument offered by Martinez's backers is this speciousone: Where would 94-68 Boston be without him? That contains aninherent bias against exactly the kind of player who should bewinning the award: a great player playing for a great team. Or,as MVP voter Jack O'Connell of The Hartford Courant puts it,"That's voting on a hypothetical negative. You have to becareful about putting the wild card on equal footing withwinning a division. It's still the backdoor."

Without the wild card Martinez's candidacy is as moot as wasthat of his hero, Juan Marichal, in 1966. Marichal (25-6, 2.23)walked fewer batters than Martinez while pitching 307 1/3innings. His Giants finished second with 93 wins. Marichal woundup sixth in the MVP voting, far behind winner Roberto Clementeof the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Fifteen starting pitchers have finished in the top three in MVPvoting since 1956, the first year writers also chose a Cy YoungAward winner. All 15 pitched for first-place teams. Where wouldthe Red Sox be without Martinez? They were 68-63 in the games inwhich he didn't pitch. (Martinez made two relief appearances.)That's a pace for 83 wins--which puts them smack dab in awild-card race with the A's and the Blue Jays.

"If I win just the Cy Young Award, that's enough for me. I'mhappy just with that," Martinez said last Friday, "but I think apitcher should be considered for MVP. I wear a uniform just likethem. I am a player, too."

Who, then, deserves the award? We'll tell you that, after anassessment of the other leading candidates, starting with ...

Rafael Palmeiro, Rangers. The instructions to the writers whovoted in the original MVP balloting, in 1931, asked them toconsider contributions "offensively and defensively." Thisdirective is still in effect. Palmeiro took all but 107 of his565 at bats as a designated hitter, which means he played halfthe game for virtually the whole season. While his teammateswere sweating in the field, Palmeiro could, if he desired, watchthe game on TV while reaching for a hunk of pizza. An MVPshouldn't be someone who can play the same position as you do athome. While Palmeiro had the luxury of air conditioning andthinking about nothing but his next at bat...

Rodriguez dominated the game behind the plate like no catchersince Johnny Bench. Opponents tried to run on Pudge only 72times all year. He threw out 38 of them. He also picked off 10runners. Rodriguez also hit .332, the highest average by anAmerican League catcher since 1937. Alas, Rodriguez had a pooron-base percentage (.355) and was ordinary in the clutch,hitting .305 with runners in scoring position (.225 with twoouts in such situations). You can't afford those kinds ofshortcomings in this company. Just ask...

Nomar Garciaparra. Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette didn'thesitate to call Martinez his choice for MVP instead ofGarciaparra, his All-Star shortstop and the league's leadinghitter (.357). More damaging, Garciaparra missed 27 games becauseof injuries. You can't concede that much downtime to stalwartslike...

Alomar. Not only does he have fine Triple Crown category numbers(.323, 24, 120), but he also led the league with 138 runs, stole37 bases, drew 99 walks and--talk about range--played secondbase the way Perlman does his Stradivarius. Says Joe Strauss ofthe Baltimore Sun, who voted Alomar first, "I look for the guywho helps his team win in the most ways, most often." That'ssound thinking. Except that would not be Alomar. That would be...

Jeter. The Yankees' shortstop surpassed Alomar in on-basepercentage (.438 to .422), slugging percentage (.552 to .533),hits (major-league-high 219 to 182) and total bases (346 to 300)while batting 26 points higher. Jeter also deserves the GoldGlove in what was a down year with the leather for the perennialwinner at short, Cleveland's Omar Vizquel. Out of a tablesetter's spot in the lineup, Jeter even slugged better than 1973MVP Reggie Jackson's .531. As a number 2 hitter he had 24 homersand 102 RBIs, and as many total bases as...

Ramirez. Only eight men have driven in more runs in a seasonthan Ramirez, who had 165 RBIs. All of those players are in theHall of Fame. All of them are also long dead. Ramirez drove inmore runs in a season than Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, WillieMays, Stan Musial, Ted Williams and everybody else who hasplayed since 1938.

The knock on Ramirez is that he benefited from the Indians'having had more runners than the New York City Marathon, butgood hitters on strong offensive teams, such as Paul O'Neill ofthe Yankees and B.J. Surhoff of the Orioles, proved that noteveryone could drive those runners in the way Ramirez did.O'Neill and Surhoff each had more at bats with runners inscoring position than Ramirez, and neither came within 55 RBIsof him. That's because Ramirez hit .386 and slugged .757 withrunners in scoring position. "Robbie got on base and got hishits," Orioles third base coach Sam Perlozzo says of Alomar,"but Manny was the guy who scared you. He did the damage. Imean, all the time. He killed us."

Yes, every once in a while Ramirez needs a compass and a map tonavigate the outfield and the base paths. The RBIs, though, areonly the beginning of the seismic impact he had at the plate ata time when the American League need only station kegs at thirdbase to complete its slo-pitch slugfest mentality. Ramirez wasthe only player in either league to finish among the top five inall three Triple Crown categories (his .333 batting averageranked fifth and 44 home runs tied for third), and he also ledthe American League in slugging percentage (.663), finishedsecond in on-base percentage (.442) and only once played as manyas five consecutive games without an RBI. "I was on to Robbieand Pudge for most of the year," Stanley says of his MVPthinking, "but Manny's numbers just kept going up and up and up,and finally I just said, 'O.K., I give. You've got it.'"

Obvious greatness gets overlooked in the mad search for nuance.The Indians have made a shambles of the American League Centralfor five years running, yet they've never had the MVP or Managerof the Year. Ramirez should be rewarded for amassing aonce-in-a-lifetime season for the first club in 49 years toscore 1,000 runs. He was the dominant player on a dominant team.It's as obvious as the outline of an ink blot. Isn't it?

COLOR PHOTO: MICHAEL ZITO/SPORTSCHROME Hitter, sitter Despite his gaudy stats, power-packed Palmeiro will suffer in the MVP voting because he was virtually a full-time DH.COLOR PHOTO: TOM DIPACECOLOR PHOTO: PAUL JASIENSKI Manny virtues The rampaging Ramirez was the only major leaguer to finish in the top five in all three Triple Crown categories.

The Signs Are Hard to Read

Pedro Martinez's 1999 performance ranks among the 12 best by astarting pitcher in the 44 years since the Cy Young Award wasestablished. His presence in the dazzling dozen, however, offersmixed hope that he'll get this year's American League MostValuable Player award to go along with the Cy Young he's certainto win. As this chronological list reveals, others with evenbetter stats than Martinez's have come up short in the MVP vote.Then again, the Red Sox' Roger Clemens ('86) and the Dodgers'Don Newcombe ('56), the only starters not on this list to win anMVP award in the life span of the Cy Young, succeeded withlesser seasons.

C IVAN RODRIGUEZ, Rangers. His 199 hits were second most everfor a catcher. He also threw out 53% of runners who tried tosteal on him. (Runner-up for catcher slot, Mets' Mike Piazza:21%.) Meanwhile, Pudge stole 25 himself.